Behind the Couch

Originally published by Tor Horror in 1988, Elizabeth Engstrom’s unusual and compelling vampire novel,  Black Ambrosia , has been republished (with an introduction by Grady Hendrix) by Vallencourt Books as part of their new Paperbacks from Hell series. Unfolding as an insular journey into the heart of darkness, Engstrom’s sophomore novel is as seductive as it is unsettling; every turn of a page beckons the reader ever further into dark, lurid realms of twisted psychology and sensual, bloody violence. It tells of Angelina, a troubled young woman who, after the death of her mother, sets off on a journey across the United States. To where, she isn’t sure; but she is curious to find a place for herself in the world and to know what it feels like to belong somewhere. The story, populated with lost souls and sinister predators, unfolds within a lonely world of desolate highways, small towns, shadowy apartments, truck stops and dingy diners. Angelina lives a transitory life, only ever br...

As a literary genre, horror was primarily written for and read by women. As a cinematic genre, horror has always drawn a large female audience. And yet, in popular media and culture, horror is often branded 'male'. The Women in Horror Annual is an anthology of horror fiction and non-fiction authored by women writers. While there are of course plenty of horror anthologies out there, none are exclusively authored by women writers, meaning this annual is a first-of-its-kind. The goal of its editors - Christine Makepeace (author and former editor of Paracinema Magazine ) and Rachel Katz (former contributing writer for Paracinema Magazine ) - is to celebrate female voices, scholarship and opinion, and to provide a showcase of women’s contribution to horror literature, culture, and entertainment.  The works have been submitted, selected and edited. The next step is publication, and that's where you come in. With your assistance, the WHA will be made available in electronic ...

Illustration from Famous Fantastic Mysteries They could feel and hear the Nameless Horror, but they could not see it… They could have no doubt that it was present among them, but… what was it? I first came across this curious and highly effective little tale in Christopher Frayling’s tome, Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula . While one of the earliest examples of the 'Invisible Force' tale, Frayling included O’Brien’s twisted yarn in his study of vampire literature, as he viewed it as a variation on traditional vampire motifs. What Was It? was first published in Harper’s Magazine, in March 1859, and tells of the residents of a particular lodging house who encounter an invisible, seemingly blood-thirsty creature in one of the rooms. Once they manage to apprehend it, they attempt to study it. Frayling refers to Irish-born American O’Brien (1828 – 1862) - generally regarded as a forerunner of science fiction - as a ‘domestic’ Edgar Allan Poe. Despite his rational appr...